Saturday, September 9, 2017 — Back to School

Introduction

With the new school year having started this week, the theme of today's puzzle from Cox & Rathvon is certainly very timely.
I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Falcon's Experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - yet to be solved

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue
	Primary indications (definitions) are marked with a solid underline in the clue; subsidiary indications (be they wordplay or other) are marked with a dashed underline in semi-all-in-one (semi-&lit.) clues. All-in-one (&lit.) clues and cryptic definitions are marked with a dotted underline. Explicit link words and phrases are enclosed in forward slashes (/link/) and implicit links are shown as double forward slashes (//).

Across

1a   Teacher // reorganized the classroom (12)

SCHOOLMASTER* — anagram (reorganized) of THE CLASS ROOM

9a   Reportedly, class activity // diminishes (7)

LESSENS~ — sounds like (reportedly) LESSONS (class activity)

10a   Awfully proud to // quit college (4,3)

{DROP OUT}* — anagram (awfully) of PROUD TO

11a   Styles of writing // digits, including indefinite number (5)

TO(N)ES — TOES (digits) including (†) N (indefinite number)

Tone^[3] (noun) means a manner of expression in speech or writing ⇒ took an angry tone with the reporters.

12a   Way of understanding // popular education fee (9)

IN|TUITION — IN (popular) + TUITION (education fee)

13a   Head of other class // delivering a speech (7)

O|RATING — O (head [initial letter] of Other) + RATING (class; noun)

15a   Land // grade after study (7)

DEN|MARK — MARK (grade; as a verb, to assess academic work or, as a noun, an academic result) following (after) DEN (study; noun)

17a   Pupil/’s/ trick involving half of deck (7)

STU(DE)NT — STUNT (trick) containing (involving) DE ([initial] half of DEck)

20a   Pass Yale student with tin // bird (7)

P(ELI)CAN — P (pass; academic result in a pass/fail grading system) + ELI (Yale student) + (with) CAN (tin)

Eli^[7] is a nickname for a Yale University student or graduate, after Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

22a   Unwritten test going into friendship/’s/ lack of ethics (9)

AM(ORAL)ITY — ORAL (unwritten test) contained in (going into) AMITY (friendship)

23a   Teacher/’s/ pet good at multiplying, mostly (5)

RABBI_ — RABBI[T] (pet good at multiplying) with the final letter removed (mostly)

24a   Hot spot /for/ geometry’s initial puzzle (7)

G|RIDDLE — G (geometry's initial [letter]) + RIDDLE (puzzle)

25a   Failing, bad goalie // leaves (7)

F|OLIAGE* — F (failing; academic result) + anagram (bad) of GOALIE

26a   Dogs /in/ pupil’s place messed up her tests (5,7)

IRIS|{H SETTERS}* — IRIS (pupil's place) + anagram (messed up) HER TESTS

Down

1d   Not Louis’s wrong // answers (9)

SOLUTIONS* — anagram (wrong) of NOT LOUISS

2d   Pavlova’s word of understanding turned // word of praise (7)

{HO|SANNA}< — reversal (turned) of {ANNA (Pavlova) + S ('s) + OH (word of understanding)}

Anna Pavlova^[7] (1881–1931) was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.

3d   Some women stencil // signs (5)

_OMEN|S_ — hidden in (some) wOMEN Stencil

4d   Last of them making a request /for/ a kind of tape (7)

M|ASKING — M (last [letter] of theM) + ASKING (making a request)

5d   Sitting around Dee, // narcotized (7)

SE(D)ATED — SEATED (sitting) containing (around) D (dee; deceptively capitalized in the clue)

Thanks to Henry for pointing out that the solution is SEDATED rather than SEDATING — after I went to so much trouble to show that "seating" could, in fact, be a synonym for "sitting".

Seating^[11] is used in the sense of an act or instance of providing with seats ⇒ having neglected to make our reservation early, we were forced to eat at the second seating.

In the surface reading, Dee^[5] may refer to any of several rivers of that name in Scotland, England, Ireland, and Australia among which the most prominent are:

• a river in northeastern Scotland, which rises in the Grampian Mountains and flows eastwards past Balmoral Castle to the North Sea at Aberdeen;
• a river that rises in North Wales and flows past Chester and on into the Irish Sea.

On the other hand, the setters may have intended Dee to be a woman's name.

6d   Changing into a mole, // all worked up (9)

EMOTIONAL* — anagram (changing) INTO A MOLE

7d   Laughing out loud one time at a // Nabokov novel (6)

LOL|I|T|A — LOL (laughing out loud; textese) + I ([Roman numeral for] one) + T (time; abbrev.) + (at; situated beside) A (†)

Lolita^[7] is a 1955 novel written by Russian American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator—a middle-aged literature professor called Humbert Humbert—is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather. "Lolita" is his private nickname for Dolores.

8d   Brought back bananas /for/ surprise (4)

STUN< — reversal (brought back) of NUTS (bananas; insane)

14d   Northern denizen // I defame, you might say (9)

ICELANDER~ — sounds like (you might say) I SLANDER (I defame)

16d   Karen’s face, with dark quality /and/ twisted trait (9)

K|INKINESS — K (Karen's face [initial letter]) + (with) INKINESS (dark quality)

18d   Riding in auto: pianist/’s/ ideal place (6)

_UTO|PIA_ — hidden in (riding in) aUTO PIAnist

19d   First of ten nails /for/ three-legged stands (7)

T|RIVETS — T (first [initial letter] of Ten) + RIVETS (nails)

Rivet^[3] (verb) is used in the sense of to hammer and bend or flatten the headless end of (a nail or bolt) so as to fasten something.

20d   Rewards // left out of championship matches (7)

P_AYOFFS — L (left) removed from (out of) P[L]AYOFFS (championship matches)

21d   Some produce /and/ a pellet placed in hamster’s pen (7)

C(A|BB)AGE — {A (†) + BB (pellet)} contained in (placed in) CAGE (hamster's pen)

22d   All but the front of freight // ship of legend (4)

_ARGO — [C]ARGO (freight) with the initial letter removed (all but the front [initial letter] of)

In Greek mythology, the Argo^[10] was the ship in which Jason sailed in search of the Golden Fleece.

23d   Illuminated once more // about literature (5)

RE|LIT — RE (about; concerning) + LIT (literature; abbrev.)

Epilogue

It didn't take much pondering to decipher the theme of today's puzzle.

Key to Reference Sources: 

^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition
^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)
^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)
^[4]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[5]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford Dictionary of English)
^[6]   - Oxford Dictionaries (Oxford American Dictionary)
^[7]   - Wikipedia
^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)
^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
^[10] - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)
^[11] - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)
^[12] - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)
^[13] - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

Signing off for today — Falcon